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Babies think dogs are 'cuter' than humans

It's official: from as young as three-years of age we are predisposed to appreciate "cuteness" in puppies, kittens and babies. Apparently dogs are also most definitely man's best friend, with the same academic study showing that their faces trump our fondness of other humans and cats.

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This revelation -- which beyond being a great excuse for the hours spent watching kitten videos, also provides clues about human evolution -- has been provided by a pair of PhD students at the University of Lincoln. It is based on the theory of

Kindchenschema, proposed by famed ethologist Konrad Lorenz. Also known as "baby schema", it is the idea that humans are predisposed to respond to "cute" features -- typically a round face, high forehead, huge eyes and a small nose and mouth -- with a desire to protect and provide care. The features are thought to be interpreted as belonging to a vulnerable entity that needs protecting, heightening our threat alert.

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A 2007 study monitoring brain activity in people looking at images of babies showed that our attention system does indeed prioritise "biologically significant positive stimuli". Two years later, another study went on to show that viewing super cute images of puppies and kittens -- as opposed to kinda-cute photos of fully-grown cats and dogs -- actually led to enhanced fine-motor skills in participants (when asked to play Operation). "This suggests that the human sensitivity to those possessing cute features may be an adaptation that facilitates caring for delicate human young," the authors of that study speculate.

The University of Lincoln pair wanted to interrogate the subject further by investigating how the human-animal bond is impacted by the baby schema, and whether our response changes with age.

Although they probably could have evaluated human attraction to puppies and kittens by recording the squeals of delight, the pair focused on eye-tracking to see if children aged between three- and six-years-old had the same reactions adults have been known to. In one experiment, they traced which facial features the children focused on, and in another they asked the children to rate the cuteness of the faces depicted.

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Just to ensure the pictures used were particularly cute, the researchers modified them digitally to ensure they were as cute as possible (the biggest eyes and cutest button nose -- without being Disney creepy, obviously). Those same images were also modified to have the far less appealing low-forehead and beady eyes of us adults. The images were shown side-by-side in a total of 24 pairs.

In the first study, the children received encouragement to look at the pictures over a total period of about 10 minutes, and received a small gift and sticker for their troubles. In another study, different children were asked to rate the images on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being very cute). Adults were also put through the same two experiments (though we believe no gift or sticker was involved).

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The authors found, according to materials printed in the journal

Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology, that, on average, children spent more time looking at the extra cute images, regardless of what species was depicted. The second experiment confirmed their suspicions. It's true, even three-year-olds are desperately attracted to images of kittens and puppies. Furthermore, images of adult dogs were shown to be preferential to other adult faces -- cats followed in second place, and finally humans. The children spent 78 percent of the time looking at specific features -- the eyes, nose and mouth. "Our results provide the first rigorous demonstration that a visual preference for these traits emerges very early during development," says coauthor Marta Borgi. "Independently of the species viewed, children in our study spent more time looking at images with a higher degree of these baby-like features."

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The authors do recognise that future studies need to take into account not just whether the children have pets at home (which they already had) but whether they have a degree of involvement in the pet's care. This could, of course, impact their interest. They also need to explore how much the attentiveness to the cute images is based upon a need to nurture the animal/baby in question. Since "cuteness" has already been associated with a willingness in adults to adopt a baby, the same might be shown of adopting a keen dog and cat, the authors suggest. The extension of this would be how humans care for their respective pets, according to how conventionally attractive they are. "We now need to find out if that attractiveness may override children's ability to recognise stress signalling in dogs," said coauthor professor Kerstin Meints. "This study will also lead to further research with an impact on real life, namely whether the

'cuteness' of an animal in rescue centres makes them more or less likely to be adopted."

Beyond these things, however, there could be significant ways to build upon this knowledge to implement better education systems, the Lincoln pair suggest. "Since attention is one of the key aspects of the learning process, interacting with animals may represent a mean for promoting cognitive development -- e.g. by enhancing motor skills and ability to follow instructions and by improving memory," write the authors. "Thus future research on the attentional aspect of children's relationships with pet animals should be encouraged. In addition, the analysis of specific animal characteristics able to elicit emotional/affiliative responses in children could ultimately help develop interventions for children with deficit in the social domain by providing salient and emotionally relevant stimuli (e.g., helping in developing socially interactive robots for the utilisation of animals as a model for social robotics."

And so the cycle of a near perfect experiment is complete. It began with showing cute pictures of kittens, puppies and babies to three-year-olds, and ends with a declaration that animal robots could be the key to our future wellbeing.